Pistol permit police-radio database bill passes Legislature --
Politicians hope you won’t remember their anti-gun vote
South Dakota Gun Owners E-mail
Alert
PO Box 3845, Rapid City, SD 57709
(605) 737-5583
LibertyTeeth@sdgo.org
http://www.SDGO.org
(February 26, 2005) – The database bill (HB 1209) received final passage late last week and was signed by the Governor yesterday.
This marks the first time in recent history that a controversial anti-gun bill has passed the South Dakota Legislature with literally no debate and by unanimous votes in both houses.
The anti-gun crowd has long wanted the ability to profile pistol permit holders. In their view, anyone who wants to carry a gun for self-defense is suspect and should be treated as a threat. But in order to profile gun owners, they need an instantly accessible central registry.
That’s exactly what anti-gunners tried to establish in 2001. Their bill was soundly defeated that year by a firestorm of opposition from SDGO members. In 2002, further attempts to establish the database were stopped cold when we successfully passed the current law (now repealed) prohibiting this kind of central registry.
But anti-gun politicians never give up. Having learned that they could not meet
the opposition head-on, they developed a campaign of deliberate deception
designed to confuse the issue and discredit gun owners.
As HB 1209 was rammed through the House and Senate, Rep. Matt Michels, Speaker of the House, and Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, emerged as the most visible leaders in this attempt to silence the opposition.
Anyone who disagreed was characterized as misinformed and lacking credibility. Rather than acknowledging constituent concerns about the database, Michels and Schoenbeck responded with classical doublespeak. The database bill would only benefit gun owners by increasing their privacy and confidentiality, they said. Valid concerns that HB 1209 would open the door to abuse of the system were brushed aside with false claims about built-in “safeguards.”
But these falsehoods were simply part of a concerted effort to discredit and disenfranchise constituents, while promoting gun control under the guise of helping gun owners.
Unfortunately, they also enlisted the help of two compromising gun rights leaders. South Dakota Shooting Sports lobbyist David Conway and House Majority Leader Larry Rhoden worked hand in hand with notorious anti-gunners like Senators Gene Abdallah and JP Duniphan to pass the database bill. (As many of you may remember, Duniphan and Abdallah were sponsors of the 2001 database legislation.)
As a result of this backroom deal, Rep. Rhoden became the driving force behind HB 1209 in the House, while Sen. Abdallah sponsored the bill in the Senate. For his part, Mr. Conway worked to convince gun owners and the more pro-gun legislators that the anti-gun bill was really “good for gun owners and good for law-enforcement.”
Regrettably, Conway also used his position with South Dakota Shooting Sports to obtain NRA endorsement for the bill. But anyone who reads the endorsement will wonder if NRA management actually read the bill. It appears that they too have been taken in by the misinformation campaign behind HB 1209.
By surrounding the issue with smoke and mirrors, the anti-gun crowd has succeeded in forcing the pistol permit police-radio database on South Dakota, despite the thousand plus petitions, emails, postcards and phone calls that gun owners delivered. This blatant failure to represent the people of South Dakota must not be forgotten at election time.
HB 1209 will take effect on July 1st, 2005, and the instantly accessible central registry will become a reality. While it is unlikely that abuse of the system will begin immediately, it is almost inevitable that gun owners will be treated differently as time goes on. SDGO has already begun to compile records of actual cases in which South Dakotans have been harassed for exercising their right to bear arms. If you or anyone you know experiences this kind of situation, please contact us.